A sandwich, Band-Aid and arrest

'All Good Things' based on life of Robert A. Durst, who was arrested for murder while shoplifting in Valley.

Ryan Gosling as David Marks and Kirsten Dunst at his wife Kathie in the crime… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )

December 15, 2010|By Amy Longsdorf, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL

Starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Jarecki's "All Good Things" is one of the year's best crime thrillers. The based-on-a-true-story tale is bound to be particularly fascinating for Lehigh Valley viewers because the figure at the center of the action is based on Robert A. Durst, a Lehigh University grad who was apprehended for murder at a Wegman's in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

Durst is not mentioned by name in the movie (which opens Friday in Philadelphia) but he's the sole inspiration for protagonist David Marks (Gosling), the heir to a New York real estate fortune who's suspected but never tried for the killing of his wife Kathie (Dunst). Like Durst, the fictional Marks is also believed responsible for two additional murders. He's a suspect in both the gangland slaying of a woman who was one of his oldest friends and the murder and dismemberment of an elderly man (Philip Baker Hall) in Texas

It was for the murder of Morris Black that Durst was arrested in Bethlehem as he was trying to steal a chicken sandwich, a Band-Aid and a newspaper at Wegman's. Amazingly, at the time, Durst had $500 in his pocket and $36,000 in cash in the trunk of his car.

Durst's trip to the Lehigh Valley was part of a nearly seven-week sojourn in which, while on the run, he revisited his past haunts, including Bethlehem and the upstate New York home he shared with Kathie.

"I was really moved by that [trip]," notes Jarecki, best known for directing the acclaimed "Capturing the Friedmans." "It gave me an idea of Durst as an emotional figure."

While on the run, Durst often dressed in drag, pretending to be mute. Jarecki notes that during one of Durst's nights in the Lehigh Valley, he stopped at a bar near Lehigh University dressed as a woman. "Apparently, he got his wig too close to a candle on the bar, and it caught fire," recalls the filmmaker. "He pulled it off, stomped on the fire and then put the slightly charred wig back on his head and finished his drink."

After Durst's arrest , he went on trial for the murder of Black but convinced jurors he acted in self-defense and wound up spending about two and a half years in prison. He is now living off a $65 million settlement from his family.

As if this story couldn't get any stranger, Durst was shown "All Good Things" recently and even though the movie holds him responsible for three deaths, he counts himself a fan of the film.

"After he watched the movie, [Durst] called me up and told me that he wanted to let me know I'd made a really good film," says Jarecki. "He said, 'It's a hundred times more accurate than anything else out there. I cried three times.' But he didn't say which three times."